LIMITLESS

Sunday, 4 March 2018

The general idea I used to have
about walking with God was that if I wanted to follow Him, I must serve Him.
Now based on this ideology, the moment I came to Christ, I quickly started the new
believer’s class and upon graduating from that class I quickly started the
workers training in order to join the church workforce.

Anyone who can still remember how
they felt when they came to Jesus can attest to the zeal and fire to just do
any work that is available in the house of God.

My dad was a pastor in a
Pentecostal church in Nigeria and this resulted in us being the first to arrive
church and often last to leave. This for me was so much fun, it gave me an
opportunity to do so much work for my Father (both heavenly and biological).

As I grew in the faith, whenever
I lead people to Christ, I also encourage them to join a foundation class to
grow them in the knowledge of Christ and introduce them to the workforce. The
idea for me was that proximity to “church” is a great elixir to building a
lasting relationship with God and the level of commitment to working in church a
pointer to one’s level of commitment to God. This ideology however has birthed
so many church workers who in reality are no different from unbelievers…

Then recently, the Lord caused me
to stumble on a scripture that has turned everything right side up for me;

John 12:23-26

23But Jesus answered them, saying, “The hour
has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. 24Most assuredly, I say to
you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone;
but if it dies, it produces much grain. 25He who loves his life will lose it,
and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26If anyone serves Me, let
him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves
Me, him My Father will honor.”

This passage literally left me
shook especially verse 26.

Let us read the portion in bold
highlight again; Vs 26 If anyone serves
Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone
serves Me, him My Father will honor.

Apparently all this while, I had
it backwards. My love for Jesus had driven me to work for Him and was the basis
for me driving others to work within the workforce. And I must state it
categorically at this point that your love for Christ will propel you to
action. However, Jesus was saying that if anyone will serve Him, they fellow
must ‘FOLLOW’ Him.

And as I spent time meditating on
the implication of this, then I understood why Jesus told Martha that Mary had
chosen the more important thing.

Please permit me to liken the
“activities” of working for God in church to the busyness Martha was burdening
herself with whereas the desire in the heart of the Father is that we follow
Him just like Mary did by seating at the feet of Jesus. Jesus said; “where I
am, there my servant will be also”. Remember Mary sat with Jesus while Martha busied herself in the kitchen with 'seemingly' important hosting activities. It is interesting to note Jesus' comments that Mary had chosen the important thing.

Please may I ask you child of God, right
now as you read this, where is Jesus and what is He doing/saying right now? Do
you know? If you don’t, may I admonish that you check your followership status.

It is when you follow Him that
you will know what He requires to be done. He will instruct you Himself and
when He instructs you, He is counting on you to execute to the letter every
instruction you receive. I love the way verse 26 ended. It says; ‘if anyone
serves Me, him My Father will honor’.

This means that God the Father
will honor you only if you serve Christ Jesus. And the only way to serve Christ
is to follow Him. I pray God that He will expand this insight for you.

As if the flogging above was not
enough, He then said to me; Son, Disciples aren’t formed from crowds.

Sunday, 18 February 2018

Over the last week, people all
over the world celebrated St Valentine’s day and there was a lot of “love” in
the air.

For most people, it was another
regular day either by choice of election or by situational circumstances but
all in all, February 14 is a day that most people (females mostly J) look forward to with
much gusto.

A passage of scripture occupied
my heart for most of that week and formed the basis for my meditations for the period
and I would like to share some portion of that passage with you.

Matthew 22:35-38 (NLT)

35One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this
question: 36"Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law
of Moses?" 37Jesus replied, "'You must love
the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.'
38This is the first and greatest commandment.

For the sake of this write up, I will
stop at 38.

Most of us are conversant with
the “ten commandments” but is it not rather interesting that Jesus when asked
which commandment was the greatest, responded with an answer that is not
captured in what we all grew up to know as the ‘ten commandments of Moses’? an in-depth
review of this will make a great topic for another day. But for today, let us
stay on the subject matter; Love.

Love according to Jesus is a
commandment. According to the Oxford dictionary, a commandment is a rule to be
observed strictly. Meaning that going by Jesus’ words, we are under a strict
mandate to love God with ALL our
hearts, ALL our soul and ALL our mind.

Permit me to ask you to pause at
this point and read Matthew 22:37 again but please do so in slow motion with a
3D view of yourself.

While you are digesting that
passage, I would like you to ask yourself; do I love God with ALL my heart, ALL
my soul and ALL my mind?

When you love someone or
something, the thought of the person/thing consumes you. The thought of a loved
one literally consumes you. You go to bed thinking about the person, wake up thinking
about the person, you even see this person in your dreams and most times, spend
a very good part of your day daydreaming about this person. Every person that
has ever had a huge crush on someone would understand what I am saying. And this
doesn’t come near to describing the expectations of the feeling of love.

How much of you has God consumed? Does
He have ALL your heart, your soul and your mind or have you allocated just some
part to Him? As a child of God, the commandment is
to ensure that all of us is geared towards loving God. We must be lost in Him.

February 14 has come and gone,
but the question that still lingers in my heart is this; based on my evaluation
of myself, can I really say that I have loved the Lord my God with all my
heart, all my soul and all my mind? Everything I am doing currently, every
thought in my heart, every action that I have taken and will take, are they all geared
towards expressing my love for my Father? Can I truly say that I have strictly
observed the rule to love my Lord my God?

I have spent some time answering
these questions for myself but I want to pose the same questions to you; have
you really obeyed the first commandment?

Sunday, 4 February 2018

I had the opportunity to teach
last week and I shared from a hymn in the book of Habakkuk and for some reason
even after that meeting, the word kept growing in my heart and is still doing
so. I thought to share some part of that message with you.

Habakkuk 3:17-18

17 Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines;
Though the labor of the olive may fail, and the fields yield no food; Though
the flock may be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls… 18
Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.

I know most of us grew up in the
name it and claim it era of Christianity and financial prosperity is a major
sign of a thriving relationship with God in our times. Unfortunately what this
has resulted in is a breed of Christians who have little or no tolerance for
adversity. So at the slightest emergence of anything that may seem like an
adversity, the response of many is to seek the easiest route out which most times
is one of compromise.

The scripture reference above
from the book of Habakkuk depicts a man in an agrarian society. The cycle
explained in verse 17 of chapter 3 of that book speaks to a year of absolutely
no harvest. His fields did not yield, his trees did not blossom, there were no
fruits from his vine and to crown it off there was no flock in his fold. Now let
me paint this picture in the light of our current day reality; imagine going to
work every day for a year and not receiving a single wage/salary in that year
despite all your effort/input/transportation to and fro work and you don’t get
paid at the end of the year.

I don’t know how Habakkuk did it
in his day, but I can tell you that the default reaction of most people will be
severe rage. Actually, I doubt the individual will still be coming to work
after 6 months of no pay.

However, look at Habakkuk’s
response in verse 18; he said; Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in
the God of my salvation. I think it is the NIV version of verse 18 that says
Yet, I choose to rejoice… the prophet Habakkuk CHOSE to rejoice. He chose to joy in the God of his salvation.

I underline the word CHOOSE because this means that
circumstances were demanding a different response from him, but his reaction to
the circumstances on ground was a conscious one from his end, he chose to
respond in joy.

I don’t know what situation you
may currently find yourself in, I don’t know how grave that situation is, no
matter how bad it is, I call on you today to choose joy. Look that problem in
the face and consciously laugh out loud at it in joy. Let your joy be born out
of the knowledge of the salvation you were saved with in Christ. God saved you,
you are His and He is yours. He has promised that He will never leave nor
forsake you. The psalmist puts it this way; he said though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil for You God are with me. Let your
joy be in God, He is with you watching over and keeping you.

So I compel you to choose joy
today. The word choose presupposes that you have an option how to respond to
your situation. You either respond in fear which in turn leads to depression et
al or you can choose to respond in JOY.

Wednesday, 31 January 2018

I am the true vine and My Father is the
vinedresser. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes,
that it may bear more fruit.

I believe that The Lord will have
me instruct someone and correct a notion that has been brewing in your mind.

He said that every branch that
bears fruit, The Father prunes. A number of believers are going through
situations that has them both confused and in battle mode. For some, you have
embarked on major fasting and prayer to “sort out” the issues you are currently
going through.

But The Father will have me tell
you that He is the one that is pruning you so that you can bear more fruit. He is
cutting out some things which were hitherto relevant and important and played a
major part in your life. You are not under any attack, I am the One pruning you
that you may bear more fruit.

Allow Me to finish and perfect My
work in you and you will yet rejoice says The Lord.

Thursday, 4 January 2018

This morning, I had a stirring in
my spirit and the Father began to talk to me on some matters some of which I will
share with you in this post.

Being my first article in 2018, I
want to welcome you to this new calendar year and pray that Christ will be
formed in you more and more this year, Amen & Amen!!!

A major characteristics of the
beginning of every year is that people are more willing to make life
adjustments and set goals/directions for their lives in the coming year. And as
I observe this phenomenon over the years, I see that most of these actions are
geared towards knowing who we are and finding one’s self and as such living the
best possible life that one can within the context of what the world’s systems
define as a good life.

All around us, the world is
teaching us to know who we are. So there are self-discovery, self-mastery, self-definition,
self-evaluation etc tools, books, conferences, sermons everywhere and all of
that brings a scripture to mind 2Timothy 3:1-5

1But know this, that In the last
days terrible times will come. 2For men
will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, abusive,
blasphemers, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unthankful, unholy,
3unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of
good, 4traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of
God, 5having a form of godliness but denying its power and from such people
turn away!

All this self-education and
self-equipment will in addition to its many benefits lead to the type of person described above or a hybrid
version with some varieties (more or less) than described in the scripture
above.

And I know that there are so many
people who have innocently walked into this error in their quest for God. People
who have been led astray by business schools, psychology houses and
motivational centers. If you fall into such a category,
I want to encourage you with a scripture from the book of Acts 17:22-31

22Then Paul stood in the midst of
Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very
religious; 23for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your
worship, I even found an alter with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore,
the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: 24”God, who
made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does
not dwell in temples made with hands. 25Nor is He worshipped with men’s hands
as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all
things. 26And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all
the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the
boundaries of their dwellings, 27so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope
that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one
of us; 28for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own
poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring’. 29Therefore, since we are the
offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold
or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. 30Truly, these
times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to
repent, 31because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in
righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to
all by raising Him from the dead.”

The desire of the Father for His
own is that we know Him as He is known. His desire is to lead His own to know
Him. To know that it is in Him that we live, move and have our being. There is
literally no way you will not be able to discover your true self if you seek
Him to know Him and grow in Him and draw closer to Him.

I challenge you therefore to seek
God this year like you have never done before in your entire life and press
into deep realities in Him. And I can assure you of this; as you seek Him, you
will definitely find Him and so much more.

Thursday, 28 December 2017

As the year 2017 gradually comes
to an end and plans are in high gear to usher in the New Year 2018, one of the
things I know that most people do in preparation for a New Year is make New
Year resolutions and set goals for the New Year.

For me, this is usually a time to
step back and retreat and seek the face of the Father on what is in His heart
at this point in His season of life. God works in seasons and those seasons
usually do not necessarily follow our calendar years so an understanding of the
heart of the Father will aid a child of God walk right with Him.

The Lord drew my attention to a
passage in the book of Romans 8:5;

For those who live according to
the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh but those who live
according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

So as you prepare and plan for
the New Year, I have a question for you. If I look at your goals and plans for
the New Year and gauge them, will I confirm that you live by the Spirit or
according to the flesh?

For those who live according to
the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh…

Mind you, the flesh is in
constant enmity with God. So anything that does not bring you closer to God but
draws you away from Him is flesh.

I want you to think on these
things and adjust your plans/life accordingly.

Monday, 11 December 2017

I love Christmas, I can’t say for
sure exactly why I love it, but I do. My wife has even made it a more
interesting season for me with all the drama around decorations and carols et
al and like the good student I am, I am catching the bug quickly and every year
has been better than the last. Even when I try to dull her, it is never a dull
moment with Meemeesola.

Okay, this post is not about my
wife and how much I love her though I am sure you know that already.

One of the things I love about
Christmas is that it is a season when you don’t have to prompt people a lot to
do good. People are more willing to give both to charity and to friends and
even enemies as well. There is that giving grace during the Christmas season.

This year for some reason I decided
to pray about what God will have us give this period. I had some plans in mind
as giving back to my community is up there in my list of priorities. I am one
of those people that believe that the body of Christ should be assisting ease
the burden on society in the areas of quality education, health, accommodation and
feeding. If we can’t make it free (which I don’t see why we can’t), we should at
least make it as subsidized as possible. On a later day, maybe I will share my
plans around this and you are free to chat me up privately and I can share my
thoughts on this.

But as I prayed along those
lines, God pointed me to a scripture and asked me to be guided by that. I know
most of us have amazing plans for this period and some of us have even
commenced executing those plans. But as you do and go ahead in life, I will
like you to read this scripture, meditate on it and keep it at the fore front
of your mind in all your giving and doing good.

I pray that the Lord will expand
this scripture in your hearts and open the eyes of your understanding to see
what is in the heart of the Father, Amen!

Matthew 6:1-4(NKJV)

1“Take heed that you do not do your charitable
deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your
Father in heaven. 2Therefore, when you do your charitable deed, do not sound a
trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets,
that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their
reward. 3But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what
your right hand is doing, 4that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your
Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly".